History of The Evening News THE HISTORY OF THE EVENING NEWS INTRODUCTION The information presented below has been organised in the form of a timeline, detailing certain key events in the newspaper's history from 1881 to 1987. It is intended as a general overview of the newspaper which I hope will be of interest to those curious about the origins and history of the Evening News. The facts assembled here have been derived from various sources which include issues of the newspaper itself, Internet sites and several publications which I have listed at the bottom of this web page. The Evening News was founded in 1881 by Coleridge Kennedy and Harry Marks. The first edition of the newspaper was published on July 26, 1881 and was priced at one halfpenny. It was four pages long with six columns to a page and was edited by Martin Fradd, who had previously edited the Torquay Evening News in Devon. Curiously, the very first issue of the Evening News made no announcement of the fact that it was the first edition, nor was there any proclamation of editorial policy. Unheralded, the paper simply came out.

The original daily circulation of the Evening News totalled a mere 10,000 copies. In the early years of its life the newspaper was distributed in London from traps drawn by ponies. Martin Fradd, together with several of his associates (also from Devon), set up the original newspaper offices of the Evening News at 83-85 Farringdon Street, Ludgate Circus, London, E.C. The building that housed the offices of the newspaper was in fact situated in an alley just off Farringdon Street. The Evening News, July 26, 1881 Soon after its inception, the Evening News, which had originally entertained somewhat liberal aspirations, became the voice of the Conservative Party when it was bought by the Conservative Newspaper Company Ltd. At this point Martin Fradd was replaced as editor by Frederick A. Hyndman whose own brief tenure came to an end when Charles Williams, a former war correspondent, took over as editor in 1882. In 1882, the Evening News headquarters were relocated to a ramshackle building at 12 Whitefriars Street, London, E.C. The newspaper was to remain at this address for the next twenty years.

In 1883 Frank Harris (1856-1931) was appointed as the new editor. Harris held the position for four years during which time he became known for his sensationalising headlines. He left in 1887 to become editor of the Fortnightly Review. His successor was Dr. I. Rubie. On November 22, 1888, the editors of the Evening News announced that the circulation of the newspaper had reached 219,000 copies. In 1889 Rubie left the Evening News and was succeeded by W. R. Lawson who himself was replaced the same year by J. H. Copleston who held the post from 1889-1894. On May 13, 1889, the Evening Post, a rival newspaper, lost out in the circulation battle and was absorbed by the Evening News. From this date onwards the new amalgamated paper carried the full title of "The Evening News and Post," and was now owned by the Union Newspaper Company Ltd.

From 1889 onwards the Evening News and Post proudly claimed to have the "largest sale of any evening paper in London." Alfred and Harold Harmsworth By the summer of 1894, the newspaper, which was under the control of city financier Harry Marks, was struggling financially. On August 30, 1894, the nearly-bankrupt Evening News and Post was acquired for �25,000 by the brothers Alfred Harmsworth (1865-1922) and Harold Harmsworth (1868-1940), who were to become the first Lord Northcliffe and the first Lord Rothermere respectively. The Harmsworth brothers appointed Kennedy Jones (1865-1921), a brilliant young journalist from Glasgow, as the new editor of the Evening News and Post. The paper was to remain under the ownership of the Harmsworth family empire for its entire lifespan. On September 17, 1894, the "and Post" was dropped from the title and the newspaper reverted back to its original name the Evening News.

In the same month the paper announced that its average daily sale had increased to 110,000 copies. The Evening News broke the world record for the highest individual daily sale of a newspaper on November 15, 1894 when 394,447 copies were sold. By March 1896 the daily circulation of the Evening News had increased to over 250,000 copies. In the same year the successful editorship of Kennedy Jones came to an end when he was succeeded as editor by Walter J. Evans. On August 26, 1901, the Evening News absorbed another of its rivals, the Evening Mail. From thereon the full title of the newspaper became "The Evening News and Mail." The Evening News and Mail was the first newspaper to report the death of Queen Victoria on January 22, 1901. Throughout its history, the Evening News prided itself on being "first with the news." For many years this catchphrase reflected the overriding work ethic associated with being a reporter for the newspaper.

In 1902 the offices of the Evening News were moved from Whitefriars Street to nearby Carmelite House, which was built in 1898, in Carmelite Street, London, E.C.4. The headquarters of the Evening News remained at Carmelite House for several decades. It was said that upon entering Carmelite House, in order to gain ingress to the headquarters of the Evening News one had to ascend several floors of the building in a creaking wrought-iron lift. Many years later, in the years after the Second World War, the Evening News relocated to Northcliffe House, a short distance away on the corner of Whitefriars Street. On March 14, 1905, the newspaper once again changed its name back to the Evening News, dropping the "and Mail" from the title as it appeared on the front cover. This same issue was in fact a special eight-page edition. On the following day (March 15) the newspaper expanded its regular size to six pages. The Evening News was the first evening newspaper to do this.

In the same year the Harmsworth family founded Associated Newspapers Limited, of which the Evening News and the Daily Mail (founded in 1896) were a part. The Evening News was a pioneering newspaper, not only in journalistic terms but also in its use of new technology. Journalistic novelties pioneered by the newspaper included the "Woman's World" and "Gossip of the Day" columns. The Evening News was also the first newspaper to install a telephone in its offices (at Carmelite House) and, in 1906, the Evening News initiated the use of motor vans for distribution. With a large fleet in operation, the bright yellow Evening News distribution vans were for a familiar site in London for many years. A miniature replica of an Evening News distribution van! On September 12, 1910, the Evening News permanently enlarged its size from six to eight pages. On November 21, 1913, the Evening News celebrated its 10,000th edition in style with a bumper sixteen-page issue. In the same week, the proprietors of the newspaper organised a number of festivities across London to mark the occasion; these included a fireworks display at Alexandra Palace.

A section of the Evening News linotypes at Carmelite House (ca. 1913) During the years of the First World War (1914-1918), the size of the Evening News fluctuated a great deal. Although there were a number of eight or ten page issues produced during the war, most editions of the newspaper were only four pages long. By 1917, acute paper shortages in Britain led to the curtailment of newspaper distribution and smaller sized papers in general. In early 1918 enforced rationing was introduced in Britain, after a government policy of encouraging a code of voluntary rationing had failed to work. This situation ensured that the Evening News remained at its minimum size of four pages, and also resulted in the newspaper carrying less advertisements. Shortly after the cease-fire agreement on November 11, 1918 which marked the end of the First World War, the Evening News returned to its former size of eight pages long. Over the next few years the newspaper gradually grew in size. In July 1920 the average net daily sale of the Evening News was 825,825 copies. In 1922, the editor Walter J.

Evans, who had held the post for 26 years, was replaced by Charles Beattie (1875-1952), whose tenure ended in 1924 when Frank L. Fitzhugh took over the role. In 1927 the headquarters of the Daily Mail newspaper were relocated to the recently constructed Northcliffe House on Tudor Street. From thereon the offices in the original Carmelite House were fully occupied by the staff of the Evening News. This extra space was necessary to accommodate the newspaper's rapid growth in both size and popularity during the mid-1920s. By 1928, the newspaper was sixteen pages long. On January 25, 1930, the 15,000th edition of the Evening News was published. In the same month it was announced that the average daily sale of the newspaper was 691,320 copies. In the 1930s the Evening News, under the editorship of Frank L. Fitzhugh, was by far and away the most popular London newspaper. Its circulation was almost as large as those of The Star and the Evening Standard combined.

The average daily net sale throughout 1938 was 812, 405 copies. Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the British government introduced paper rationing. As a result of this issues of the Evening News during the war years were only four pages long. After the war ended in 1945, continuing paper shortages meant that the Evening News stayed the same size for the remainder of the decade. Fitzhugh's long term as editor ended when he passed away in 1944. At this point Guy Schofield (1902-1990) took over the post. The Evening News, June 9, 1944 Despite paper restrictions, the Evening News announced on October 22, 1946 that the average daily net sale of the newspaper had reached 1,598,181 copies. The newspaper achieved its highest-ever circulation under the editorship of Schofield in the late 1940s, when it regularly sold 1,700,000 copies. In 1950 Schofield was succeeded as editor by John N.

Marshall, under whose editorship the biggest-ever individual sale for an issue of the Evening News was reached. This occurred at the time of the death of King George VI in February 1952, when three million copies were sold in a single day. In the early 1950s, when paper rationing finally came to an end, the Evening News gradually began to grow in size. The newspaper first expanded from four to eight pages. By the late 1950s the paper had grown in size to sixteen pages long. From thereon, the Evening News continued to increase in page length. Reginald Willis, who had previously worked as assistant editor on the Evening News, took over as editor in 1955. The Star, a long-running competitor of the Evening News, had its offices in Bouverie Street, just around the corner from the Evening News headquarters. Although The Star was founded in 1888, from 1930 it was a companion newspaper to the News Chronicle, a national daily that was considered the most liberal of all the Fleet Street newspapers. Both papers folded when they were absorbed by Associated Newspapers in 1960.

The News Chronicle merged with the Daily Mail and The Star was absorbed by the Evening News. On October 18, 1960, the official title of the newspaper became "The Evening News Incorporated with The Star." In 1965 K. Stamp was appointed as the new editor. His replacement in 1967 was Don R. Boddie. During the 1960s the Evening News steadily increased in size, with the paper regularly producing issues that were between twenty and thirty pages long. On September 16, 1968, the paper reverted back to its former name, being once again known simply as the Evening News. At this point the editors also replaced the distinctive gothic lettering of the newspaper's title as it appeared on the front page, with a more modern typeface. From the 1950s onwards, the three surviving evening newspapers in London were suffering from dwindling circulations, and competition between them was fierce. After The Star folded in 1960, sales of the two remaining newspapers, the Evening News and the Evening Standard, continued to fall. There were a number of reasons for this.

The Evening News journalist Felix Barker, writing in 1980, reflected that the constant reader had gradually become an inconstant reader. In the paper's heyday the typical scenario was that the husband would buy an evening newspaper on his way home from work, handing the paper to his wife when he got home. However, with the rising popularity of television in the 1950s, the necessity for an evening newspaper was lessened. People began to turn more and more to television for their news and entertainment. Another explanation for the shrinking evening newspaper market was that from the 1940s onwards the population of inner London did in fact decline dramatically. In the 1970s sales of the Evening News continued to fall. In addition to this, the newspaper was plagued by several industrial disputes. On a number of occasions throughout the 1970s the Evening News was not printed due to strike action by the printers and maintenance worker's unions. The Evening News converted from broadsheet to tabloid size on September 16, 1974. Although this represented a major break with tradition, it was deemed a necessary step in order for the Evening News to continue to compete successfully with the Evening Standard.

At this point Don R. Boddie was replaced as editor by Louis Kirby (1928- ), who held the position for the next six years. Following the paper's conversion to tabloid size, the ensuing two years saw the general editorial content of the Evening News become more populist in nature. In this period the paper seemed to want to appeal to the widest possible audience. The overall effect of this would probably be described today as "dumbing down." However in 1977 editor Louis Kirby decided that the paper should once again appeal to the more intelligent reader and revert back to its more traditional standards. The issues that followed in the late 1970s were indeed a return to form, with the paper continuing to outsell the Evening Standard. The last issue of the Evening News to appear on a Saturday was on April 28, 1979. This was another important break with the past. From its very beginning in 1881, the Evening News had always been published six-days-a-week, but declining sales forced the proprietors to bring an end to the Saturday edition of the newspaper.

The very last editor of the Evening News was John Leese (1930-1991), who served in the position for a brief period at the very end of the newspaper's run. During the last few months of its existence in 1980, the Evening News once again became an innovator in the field of newspaper journalism by publishing an impressive weekly colour supplement. This was issued free to readers and contained an eclectic mixture of features including showbusiness news, gossip and profiles of famous people. Even as late as 1980, the Evening News still maintained the largest daily sale of any evening newspaper in London. The circulation of the newspaper at this point stood at 442,000 copies. The Evening News, October 31, 1980 With the Evening News struggling financially and sales continuing to fall, Associated Newspapers Ltd announced in early October 1980 that the newspaper would be closing at the end of the month. A special commemorative edition of the newspaper was printed on October 30, 1980.

The final issue of the Evening News was printed on October 31, 1980, after which the newspaper merged with its long-time rival the Evening Standard. For the first eight months of its existence the newly amalgamated paper was called the New Standard. The Evening News, February 24, 1987 On February 25, 1987, the Evening News, after an absence of seven years, reappeared in tabloid form on the streets of London as a sister newspaper to the Evening Standard (now owned by Associated Newspapers Ltd). The Evening News was brought back by the chairman of Associated Newspapers Vere Harmsworth (Viscount Rothermere), to compete against Robert Maxwell's ill-fated London Daily News, which was launched in the same month. The overall layout and appearance of the revived Evening News was somewhat similar to how the Evening News looked in the final few years of its previous life, up to when it closed in 1980. Vere Harmsworth, the 3rd Viscount Rothermere (1925-1998) The editor of the reborn Evening News was Lori Miles, who was one of the first woman editors on Fleet Street.

During this period the Evening News had a daily circulation of only 30,000 copies, a far cry from its heyday. However, it successfully achieved its purpose of acting as a "spoiler" to counteract the London Daily News, which lasted a mere five months before folding in July 1987. Having done its job, the Evening News continued for a few months longer before it folded abruptly on October 30, 1987, at which point it was once again integrated into the Evening Standard. To this day, the full title of the Evening Standard as displayed on its front page is "The Evening Standard Incorporating The Evening News." SOURCES AND FURTHER READING The History of The Star In Memory of The Star (1888-1960) The first issue of The Star appeared on the streets of London on January 17, 1888. A four-page broadsheet that was published six-days-a-week, it was priced like other evening newspapers at one halfpenny. The founder and very first editor of The Star was Thomas Power O'Connor (1848-1929), an Irish Nationalist M.P.

and journalist who was born in Athlone and educated at Queen's College in Galway. On the front page of the opening issue of The Star was O'Connor's declaration of editorial policy, promising that The Star would champion the cause of the underprivileged and highlight the needs of working class families. To quote from O'Connor's editorial of the first issue: "The rich, the privileged, the prosperous need no guardian or advocate; the poor, the weak, the beaten require the work and word of every humane man and woman to stand between them and the world." Published by the Star Newspaper Company from its original offices in Stonecutter Street near Ludgate Circus in E.C.4, The Star provided many Londoners with a voice not provided by certain other evening newspapers, often taking a controversial stand against government policies of the day. Very much a radical newspaper, typically The Star would strongly oppose military action (The Star was vehement in its opposition to the Boer War) and would represent the plight of workers in any trade union disputes. A liberal newspaper from its inception, The Star remained so for its entire lifespan, fighting for social justice and a better life for the poor.

From the beginning O'Connor was ably assisted by his right-hand man, assistant editor Henry W. Massingham (1860-1924), a talented journalist who succeeded O'Connor as editor in 1890. His tenure as editor ended the following year however, when Ernest Parke took over the role, remaining in the position until 1918. The early success of the newspaper was also down to a team of gifted and illustrious writers who contributed to The Star on a regular basis. Among these were George Bernard Shaw, James Douglas, Thomas Marlowe, H. N. Brailsford, William Clarke and Ernest Belford Bax. O'Connor himself went on to found and edit The Sun in 1893. An author of several books, he served in parliament for several decades until his death in 1929. Thomas Power O'Connor (1848-1929) It didn't take long for The Star to attract a huge readership among the population of the capital. In February 1888 the average daily circulation stood at 125,000 copies. In the years to follow the circulation of the newspaper rose dramatically.

By the summer of 1895 The Star was achieving a daily net sale in excess of 150,000 copies. At this time the paper proudly claimed to have the "largest circulation of any evening paper in the kingdom." Furthermore, a little known fact is that for a brief period there was another version of The Star produced by the same publisher, The Weekly Star, which ran from between 1892 and 1894. Despite this early success, very early issues of The Star were less than attractive in terms of layout, with seven columns per page and almost half of the front page taken up by adverts. However, the overall look was typical of evening newspapers in this period. This was soon to change though. By the mid 1890s numerous drawings and illustrations were interspersed with the text. With the inclusion of short stories and fiction serials from 1896, along with the "Woman's World" feature, Edith Carrington's wildlife diary, literary reviews and Captain Coe's long-running horse racing column, it is no surprise that The Star's readership increased dramatically in the final years of Queen Victoria's reign.

Despite these changes, the existing "Mainly About People," "Notes of the Day" and "What We Think" columns remained popular features for many years to come. The Star also gained an increased readership for its sensational reporting of the Jack the Ripper murders in London. The editors of the paper were certainly not afraid to experiment. A pioneering feature of The Star in the 1890s was the inclusion of a political cartoon, which proved a true innovation that was inevitably emulated by other newspapers. The Star had to contend with stiff competion though. In the early years The Star competed against a number of other evening newspapers in London, among which were the Pall Mall Gazette, the Globe, the Evening Mail and the Evening Post. The Evening News in particular proved to be a worthy adversary. Indeed, in June 1895 an argument flared up between the editors of The Star and Evening News with both papers challenging the other's circulation figures. The Evening News felt the need to point out that a newspaper's circulation was not the same as its actual net sale, while also challenging the basic accuracy of The Star's circulation figures.

The Star meanwhile firmily stood by its own claims and refuted the allegations of its rival, remarking that their own circulation figures had been independently verified. After a few more tit-for-tat exchanges, bored readers were no doubt pleased when both papers thankfully fell silent on the subject! Despite such differences of opinion between The Star and its rival the Evening News, it is beyond dispute that the circulation of The Star increased dramatically in the final years of the nineteenth century. With the paper going from strength to strength, a special edition of The Star was issued on January 17, 1898, to mark the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the newspaper. Entitled "After Ten Years," the commemorative issue included several excellent line drawings, numerous articles and messages of congratulation from newspaper editors around the world. These were golden days in the newspaper's history, and with the beginning of a new century, The Star continued to flourish under the editorship of Ernest Parke. Nevertheless, the fiercely competitive evening newspaper market in London proved too much for some titles. By the early years of the twentieth century, a number of rival papers were struggling to survive.

One by one they folded until London was left with three surviving evening papers: The Star, the Evening News and the Evening Standard. Although managing to outlast the likes of the Pall Mall Gazette and the Evening Post, in May of 1912 The Star fell under the ownership of the Cadbury newspaper empire. At this point the sister paper to The Star, the national daily the Morning Leader, which like The Star was owned and published by the Star Newspaper Company in Stonecutter Street, merged with George Cadbury's newspaper the Daily News. The amalgamation of the two titles resulted in the Daily News and Leader, which became the new companion newspaper to The Star. On July 1, 1912, the headquarters of The Star were moved from their old premises in Stonecutter Street and relocated to nearby Bouverie Street, where they shared offices with the Daily News and Leader. From this point The Star was published by the Daily News Ltd, a company which belonged to the Cadbury family. Three years later, in May of 1915, The Star absorbed the short-lived Echo and London Evening Chronicle.

Over the ensuing four months the newly merged paper bore the full title The Star and Echo, until the following August when it was once again known simply as The Star. Such changes aside, the years following the acquisition of The Star by the Cadbury empire saw it continue to grow in size (with the exception of during the Great War when paper shortages limited the size of all newspapers) and popularity, with the estimable Ernest Parke remaining as editor. Happily for the many loyal readers The Star had attained over the years, there was little disruption resultant from the takeover. Fortunately the new owners were strong supporters of the Liberal party, so that the editorial bias of The Star went largely unchanged. A sense of continuity was assured, and this factor played a major part in the enduring popularity of The Star, with the paper continuing to plead for peace and social reform. During World War One, rationing and paper costs meant that by 1916 The Star was by necessity only four pages long. The war also meant that The Star, like other newspapers, was under the control of government censorship. Another consequence of the war years was the need to increase the price of the newspaper in 1918 from one halfpenny to one penny.

Although this was considered a war-time measure, rising costs meant that the price remained the same in the years after the war. Indeed, on a wider scale the era of halfpenny newspapers had come to an end. The final year of the war proved to be a transitional period for the newspaper. It saw the resignation of Ernest Parke, who had served as editor of The Star since 1891. His natural successor was James Douglas (1867-1940), who had worked as assistant editor to Parke for many years. Another major change to the newspaper was the conversion to tabloid size on December 27, 1917. Initially intended as an experiment in form, the new smaller size was popular with commuters, thus the paper became a tabloid on a permanent basis. This meant The Star was now made up of eight smaller pages instead of the former four broadsheet-sized pages. By the early 1920s The Star had increased to twelve pages. It continued to grow in size over the following two decades. James Douglas' two years in control came to an end in March of 1920 when he left to become editor of the Sunday Express.

At this point long-serving Star journalist Wilson Pope assumed the role. Two months later on May 6, 1920, The Star published its 10,000th issue. A commemorative edition was published to mark the occasion, with special contributions from founder T. P. O'Connor and Henry Massingham. Presently The Star went on to enlarge in size, expanding to 16 pages in 1922, and increasing to twenty-four pages by the end of 1928. Circulation figures published during the 1920s certainly testify to the continued growth and popularity of The Star. Wilson Pope, editor of the Star from 1920-1930 In a visual sense issues of The Star during Pope's reign in the 1920s were a far cry from the heady days of the paper's early years. The use of photographs had increased dramatically, with the inclusion of many more feature articles developed along with the expansion of the sports, entertainment and fashion columns. The paper's long held traditions of news reporting and political commentary were still very much in evidence however.

Wilson Pope's ten years as editor were an evident success, with circulation figures as ever on the increase and the overall quality of the newspaper improving all the time. In 1930 The Star's companion newspaper the Daily News merged with the Daily Chronicle. The two papers, combined under the ownership of the Cadbury newspaper empire, formed the News Chronicle. From this point The Star and News Chronicle were seen as sister newspapers, continuing to share offices in Bouverie Street, E.C.4, with both titles published by the Daily News Ltd. The circulation of The Star continued to increase. By June 1930 the average daily net sale of the paper was 801,406. Around this time Edward Chattaway, who had previously served as assistant editor, replaced Wilson Pope as editor of The Star. Under Chattaway The Star reverted back to its former broadsheet size on October 22, 1934. Although this decision was to be reversed seven years later (see below) at the time it was felt that the continued growth of various features would be better served by making The Star a broadsheet once again.

Chattaway remained as editor until 1936, at which point he was succeeded by Robert James Cruickshank (1896-1956) who held the position until 1941. Under both these editors The Star flourished. The introduction in 1936 of free illustrated supplements proved to be a popular innovation. The mid-1930s also saw sales of The Star increase even further, with the paper giving the Evening News and Evening Standard a real run for their money, although during these years The Star never quite gained ascendancy over its rivals. The Star's enduring popularity and high circulation figures were celebrated in 1938 with the publication of the book The Story of the Star, 1888-1938: Fifty Years of Progress and Achievement, which was published by the newspaper itself. Needless to say, for those wishing to know more about the early history of The Star, this is an essential read. At this time The Star was marking a major anniversary in its history. The Star began celebrating its fiftieth year of publication with a special Jubilee article on January 17, 1938.

The anniversary article included contributions from several former writers for the newspaper. These included reminiscences from George Bernard Shaw, A. A. Milne, H. G. Wells, A. G. Gardiner and Lord Hewart of Bury. The Star's Jubilee celebrations culminated with a banquet held at the Savoy Hotel on January 21. The meal was attended by all manner of notable personages among whom were members of Parliament, twenty-two Metropolitan Mayors and various Fleet Street editors. Also in attendance were representatives from the worlds of art and literature, religious leaders, bankers, civil servants and industrialists. The year 1938 proved to be a landmark year for The Star, with even Lord Rothermere, who owned the rival newspaper the Evening News, remarking that "The Star has retained in an extraordinary degree the vivacity and enterprise of its early issues." The fiftieth anniversary of The Star was truly a cause for celebration, and it is clear that the paper was loved and respected by many. In the late 1930s The Star continued to compete successfully with its two rivals in the London evening newspaper market.

Certainly in a political sense readers of The Star saw it as a welcome alternative to the generally right-of-centre Evening News and Evening Standard. In the months building up to the outbreak of war in September 1939, The Star made clear its opposition to the rise of Nazism in Germany. While other papers openly sympathised with Hitler and took great pains to appreciate and defend his point of view, The Star stood largely alone in condemning the actions of the Third Reich. This editorial policy, while acknowledged as fully just today, was atypical of British newspapers at the time. Indeed, as early as 1933, Hitler had banned The Star from sale in Germany because of the paper's criticism of the Nazi regime. As ever, The Star, along with the News Chronicle, was not afraid to stand by its convictions. During the Second World War and the subsequent years of rationing, The Star, like other newspapers, was limited in page-length due to paper restrictions. As was the case in the first war, space limitations resulted in the disappearance of many regular features in The Star. Despite all this, The Star sold well during these austere periods.

Indeed, the paper still found room to entertain as well as inform within the limits of its four pages, and the likes of the regular short story feature (solely provided for most of the war years by the estimable F. W. Thomas) would no doubt have provided light relief for many Londoners. Overseeing all this was Arthur Leslie Cranfield, who succeeded Cruickshank as editor of the Star in 1941. Cranfield's reign saw a number of changes to the newspaper. The most important was undoubtably the conversion from broadsheet back to the former tabloid size in February 1941. A few months after the conversion in size took place, The Star settled to an average size of eight (tabloid) pages. Despite the appearance of the odd twelve page edition, it was to remain this size for most of the 1940s and into the early 1950s. Despite strict paper restrictions affecting the size and potential circulation of all newspapers in the U.K., The Star achieved its greatest ever sales in the late 1940s.

The average daily net sale from July to December 1947 stood at 1,079,848 copies. The largest ever single day's sale of The Star was attained on November 20, 1947, when on the occasion of the marriage between Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, the paper sold 1,414,660 copies. Remarkably, these figures merely reflect the highest amount of newspapers which could be produced in the period; the demand for The Star among Londoners is said to have far exceeded this. Indeed the circulation of The Star, in the immediate post-war period, certainly exceeded that of the Evening Standard, and was second only to that of Associated Newspapers' mighty Evening News. During the 1950s The Star once again expanded in size and added many more features to its contents, while still maintaining the crusading stance it had held since its inception. After sixteen years as editor of the newspaper, Cranfield finally retired from the position in 1957. His successor was Ralph McCarthy (1906-1976), who had previously worked on the News Chronicle.

Issues of the paper that appeared under McCarthy's editorial reign show that the traditions of honest news reporting in The Star were still very much alive. In addition to this the paper was now larger than ever, with the fashion, arts and entertainment columns in particular showing that The Star was successfully adapting with the times. The Star appeared to be doing well, a thriving newspaper in post-war London with its future seemingly looking bright. However, unknown to the paper's many readers trouble was brewing behind the scenes in Bouverie Street. The increasing popularity of television was having a detrimental effect on the circulation of The Star (and its competitors) in the late 1950s. This factor, in addition to falling advertising revenues, restrictive working practices, intransigent unions and weak management all contributed to the sad demise of The Star and News Chronicle at the beginning of the 1960s. With a suddenness keenly felt across Fleet Street, both The Star and News Chronicle ceased publication in October 1960, when they were bought by Associated Newspapers (publishers of the Daily Mail and Evening News, based in nearby Carmelite Street).

The final issue of The Star was published on October 17, 1960, after which it was absorbed by its long-time rival the Evening News (the News Chronicle was simultaneously integrated with the Daily Mail). The decision taken by Laurence Cadbury and the board of directors at the Daily News Ltd to close both newspapers was controversial to say the least. The shock resulting from the closure of The Star and News Chronicle was profound, with hundreds of newspaper staff who worked in Bouverie Street abruptly thrown out of work. Loyal readers of the two newspapers felt a sense of betrayal and even their rivals felt genuine sadness at the loss of what were two very worthy competitors. Having said that, it should be noted that there is little room for sentimentality in the cut-throat world of newspaper publishing. History shows us that titles disappear overnight, often being absorbed by a bitter rival. Two or three newspapers may merge with one another and begin a new amalgamated life under a new title. Newspaper and magazine owners routinely close down or sell-off their titles for reasons known only to themselves.

Such has always been the case with newspaper publishing, with the fate of long-running established titles decided by the proprieters, often to the bewilderment of the public and, more importantly to the staff who stand to lose their livelihoods. So with the demise of The Star in 1960, and the controversy surrounding its acquisition by Associated Newspapers. A whole team of talented journalists suddenly found themselves out of work, and the resultant devastation and sense of loss has been well documented in various reference works. There are two excellent books which provide a background and commentary on the final days of The Star and News Chronicle. The Murder of the News Chronicle and Star (1960) by Ewan Butler and Edward Martell is a fascinating work that was written, published and printed within a month of the events of October 1960. Also highly recommend reading is the book The Last Chronicle of Bouverie Street (1963) which was written by William Pattinson and George Glenton, two journalists who worked on the News Chronicle. Their first-hand account of the abrupt closure of the two newspapers makes for compelling stuff.

From October 18, 1960 the name of The Star lived on in a very limited sense as part of the full title of the paper which absorbed it. For eight years the masthead of Harmsworth's evening paper bore the title the Evening News and Star, until 1968 when the paper's name became just the Evening News once again. The Evening News and Evening Standard battled it out over the next twelve years, until the Evening News itself ceased publication when it was merged with the Evening Standard in October 1980. The new paper, now under control of Associated Newsapers, continues to this day and is the sole remaining evening newspaper covering the whole of London. However, older generations still remember The Star with fondness and many recall it as one of the last of the great liberal newspapers. Although the history of The Star has now become the stuff of legend, with the early years of its existence at best a dusty memory, I hope the small overview I've written above stands as an affectionate testimony that this great evening newspaper entertained and informed Londoners for 72 glorious years.

Sources and Further Reading Dennis Griffiths (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of the British Press: 1422-1992, Macmillan, 1992. Hamilton Fyfe, T. P. O'Connor, George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1934. David Hubback, No Ordinary Press Baron, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1985. Ewan Butler & Edward Martell, The Murder of the News Chronicle and Star, Christopher Johnson, 1960. George Glenton & William Pattinson, The Last Chronicle of Bouverie Street, George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1963. Anon (ed.), The Story of the Star, 1888-1938: Fifty Years of Progress and Achievement, The Star Publications Department, 1938.

Obituary: Viscount Rothermere | The Independent Obituary: Viscount Rothermere Wednesday 2 September 1998 23:02 BST Click to follow The Independent Culture VERE HARMSWORTH, the third Viscount Rothermere, was an exception to any number of rules, most notably that newspaper dynasties seldom survive the second generation. Associated Newspapers, and its flagship the Daily Mail, were founded a century ago by his great-uncle, Lord Northcliffe, and still remain in the family. Under Rothermere, the Mail and its Sunday sister have come to dominate the lucrative middle segment of the newspaper market. An unashamed patrician, with unorthodox private life, Rothermere succeeded because of his instinctive, perhaps inherited grasp of what was right for the market, and by placing unqualified trust in others' professionalism. While he never under-estimated his debt to Sir David English, the long-time editor of the Mail who died earlier this summer, nor did English fail to recognise how much he owed his proprietor. Born in 1925, Vere Harmsworth had an unstable though pampered childhood.

His mother, the former Peggy Redhead, split with his prosmicuous father Esmond not long after Vere's birth, but both parents lived the life of privileged aristocrats, surrounded by servants in comfortable London and country houses. Harmsworth's relationship with his father, the second Viscount Rothermere, was never warm, and perhaps for this reason the tall, gangly boy grew up shy and withdrawn. While at school at Eton he would go for long, lonely rides on horseback in Windsor Great Park. At the beginnning of the Second World War he was evacuated to the United States but returned to join the Army, serving in north Africa but never gaining commissioned rank. As the second Viscount's eldest son, there was never any doubt that he would take over the Associated empire. Leaving the army, he began a series of stints in some of its many outposts, beginning at a paper mill in Quebec. Back in London, he joined the advertising department, then became a circulation representative in Devon before returning to headquarters to climb the executive ladder. Outside the office he was living the life of a man-about-town. He was a member of the Beefsteak Club and the squire of pretty young actresses.

In 1957 he married one of them - the divorcee Patricia Brooks, stage name Beverley, but better known as "Bubbles". They set up homes in London and later in Paris, where he lived for part of the year not only to reduce his British tax liability, but also because he still held the Englishman's traditional romantic view of the French capital. For years he had his office there, in the shabby former headquarters of the Continental Daily Mail - founded, as he would proudly tell visitors, by the great Northcliffe. He passed an important professional landmark in 1963 when he was made a vice-chairman of Associated. The appointment was celebrated in a curious paragraph in the London Evening Standard, which ended: "Mr Harmsworth, 38, is an attractive and able man. He will make a great success in his new position." Connoisseurs of 20th-century journalism will not need to be told who wrote those confident words. They were barked down the telephone in the rasping mid-Atlantic tones of Lord Beaverbrook, then proprietor of the Standard and the Daily Express, the Mail's arch-rival.

They were Beaverbrook's way of welcoming Harmsworth to the big league of press tycoons. The Canadian baron was to die a year later - too early to see his prediction about Harmsworth proved correct at the expense of his own heirs, eventually so destroyed by the Mail that they lost control of the Express group. The qualities that Beaverbrook saw in the young man were not immediately apparent to others. Private Eye dubbed him "mere Vere" because he appeared to play only a minor role in running the newspapers. The reason was that his father was still controlling the company and did not brook interference from anyone, let alone his son. The second Viscount very nearly managed to do more substantial damage to his son's dynastic plans. In 1967, at the age of 69, Esmond Rothermere produced a son, also named Esmond, by his third wife. Vere and Bubbles, with two daughters, had not planned any more children - but if they had no son the business would now be inherited by Esmond Jr after Vere's death. Swift remedial action led to the birth at the end of that year of their only son Jonathan, now the heir apparent.

The Sixties saw a decline in the fortunes of Associated's main titles - the Mail, the Daily Sketch and the London Evening News. Editors came and went at the Mail and by the end of the decade its circulation was down to well below two million, little more than half that of the rival broadsheet the Express. The tabloid Sketch was at 750,000, only a sixth of the figure attained by the all- powerful Daily Mirror. There was nothing Vere Harmsworth could do about any of this until 1970 when his father, then 71, at last stood down from the chairmanship. At 46 Harmsworth was, for the first time in his life, faced with the necessity of having to take drastic action. Nothing in his career to date suggested that he had the capacity for it. If anything was to be salvaged from the mess he inherited, it was clear that the Sketch would have to close. Harmsworth decided, though, that its talented and ambitious young editor David English should stay and edit the Daily Mail, which would be converted into a tabloid. The mid-market tabloid was an entirely new concept in British journalism.

Until then only mass- market papers had adopted the pint-sized format. English and his proprietor believed that by thus radically altering the Mail's appearance they could direct its appeal at young suburbanites, especially women. The initial results were unpromising and it took nerve to stick with the change. By the end of the year circulation was down to less than one and a half million. English admitted to me a few years later that his own confidence was beginning to crack. He suggested to Harmsworth that the answer might be to go downmarket to compete directly with the Mirror and Rupert Murdoch's emerging Sun. "I went to Vere," English recalled, "and he said no. He said we've got to keep the same course. He said the old Daily Mail never kept its nerve and that was the trouble. It kept changing tack. It would do something and then if that didn't work it would do the opposite and that didn't work either. He insisted that we should stick to the plan." It was the middle of 1972 before the wisdom of that decision started to become apparent. Circulation began to climb and soon the Express was forced to follow the Mail down the tabloid route, but never with the same success.

Today the Mail's circulation is over 2,300,000, just double that of the Express. Harmsworth was exceptionally proud of the relaunch of the Mail, listing it as one of his achievements in Who's Who. Later in the Seventies, partly motivated by a desire to emulate Rupert Murdoch, he tried, with less success, to expand the Associated empire in the United States. In 1976 he was defeated by Murdoch in a struggle for New York magazine and Village Voice. He acquired an interest in Esquire magazine and the Soho Weekly News, a New York listings and entertainment journal, but failed in a bid to buy The Trib, a short-lived mid-market New York daily that he was planning to ask David English to edit for a few months. Then he journeyed to Wilmington, Delaware, to try to buy a chain of papers there. He made a huge impression on the natives, arriving at his midtown hotel trailed by a heavy wooden cabin trunk containing a supply of the Vichy water to which he was addicted - but he failed to clinch that deal, too.

He succeeded as third Viscount Rothermere in 1978, and back in Britain soon began to enjoy further triumphs. In 1980, after several abortive attempts, he negotiated an end to London's costly evening newspaper war by agreeing to merge his Evening News with the Express group's Evening Standard. Although the News ceased publication, the terms of the deal meant that Associated assumed full ownership of the Standard when the Express group changed hands in 1985. In 1982, having failed to buy the Sunday Times when the Thomson group sold it to Rupert Murdoch, he launched the Mail on Sunday. Again his strong nerve was called for. The first few issues were disastrous, so he fired the editor and gave David English the task of putting the paper on a proper course. Today it sells 2,200,000 a week, again double the circulation of the rival Express. Another triumph that he admitted "gave me enormous pleasure" came in 1987 when he scuppered Robert Maxwell's bid to enter the London evening paper market.

To coincide with the launch of the London Daily News, Rothermere resuscitated the old Evening News and cut its price to 10 pence. This was an attempt to confuse potential buyers and to force Maxwell to cut his price. The ploy worked so successfully that Maxwell closed his new paper after five months. In 1992 Bubbles died. For some 15 years their marriage had been an open one, with Vere conducting an unconcealed affair with Maiko Lee, a Korean woman he met in a Parisian night-club. They married in 1993. As he grew older, Rothermere became still less predictable. Last year he decided to sit on the Labour benches in the House of Lords. This surprised those who assumed that his politics were the same as those of his arch- conservative newspapers, but this had never been so. In interviews - most recently last month in the Daily Telegraph - he frequently quarrelled with the policies of his editors. Living partly in France, he was never as much of a Eurosceptic as Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail. He also had doubts about Dacre's editorial strategy, which he thought had taken the paper downmarket.

"There's too much tabloidy reporting," he said. "That kind of thing leads in due course to slovenliness and sensationalism, something reporters use to cover up the fact that they've done no work. I want it to stop." But he added: "Paul is entirely free to do anything except lose readers." He disapproved of the Mail's gossip column, because he often received complaints from friends who were mentioned in it and also because his own life was far from blameworthy. But he could see that it was an important part of the paper's appeal. He was uneasy about the hereditary principal and in 1978, not long before his father died, he told me he was considering giving up the title when he inherited it. "You could call it vanity, I suppose," he said. "But it means changing my name to somebody else's, and I think I've made a name for myself." In the event he reconciled himself to the sacrifice. But people who met him for the first time - especially Americans - always remarked on how surpris0ingly informal he was.

"That Vere's turned out to be a remarkably interesting human being after all that training and all those schools is quite remarkable," said a New Yorker who came into contact with him during the Seventies. "He's charming, he's funny and he's unpretentious. He's old enough to be stuffy but he isn't." You never knew what to expect with Rothermere, and that could have been the reason for his indusputable success. The fourth Viscount has a lot to live up to. Regarded unfairly as something of a playboy while his father found him a succession of menial tasks at Associated Newspapers, Vere Harmsworth quickly showed his mettle when he was given total control of the Mail empire, writes Louis Kirby. The decisiveness - and ruthlessness - with which he was secretly closing down the ailing Daily Sketch in 1971 was a foretaste of the dominant Fleet Street baron he was to become. Twenty-seven years ago, with Sir David English selecting the best of Associated's columnists, features and sports writers, lay-out men and sub-editors, Rothermere was a brilliant partner. It was total involvement.

He could be seen on many a night, reading copy on the backbench, watching a developing Page One story and comparing the first editions with those of the Daily Express. He always said he would have loved being a sub-editor; his affection for journalists was obvious to us all, but he could be extremely tough. Vere knew exactly what he wanted from his editorial team - and, not least, from his creative advertising team. During those early days, we gathered in a Hove seafront hotel with a high-powered agency which bristled with state-of-the-art projections. After some editorial speeches, the agency took over and explained that we were making a disastrous mistake. We were, they said, appealing to too many women - and our only salvation was to increase the male readership. Vere was by now muttering "absolute rubbish" as yet another image maker droned on. "Hear him out, Vere," insisted the agency chief. "I'm not listening to another word," said a furious Harmsworth. "For heaven's sake, we want to increase our women readership, not decrease it." Thrown out of the meeting, the agency team sped back to London.

And within 24 hours a top American writer came up with the memorable slogan: "Every man knows why every woman needs her Daily Mail". Above all, he was a man of great intelligence, of kindness, of erudition and sagacity. When I was editor of the Evening News, I agreed to pay the Daily Mail pounds 1,000 for its exclusive picture of the first test-tube baby, Louise Brown. But the Mail withdrew its offer and I went ahead and published. Top executives of the Daily Mail offered to resign in protest unless I was sacked, and Lord Rothermere summoned me to his house at Cap d'Ail. He reserved the Somerset Maugham suite at the Hotel du Cap, gave me dinner and the following day, at the hotel's swimming pool, he said: "We can't have fellow editors falling out.

So I have to slap your wrist and fine you pounds 1,000, which of course will come out of Evening News accounts." Vere Harold Esmond Harmsworth, newspaper proprietor: born London 27 August 1925; chairman, Associated Newspapers Holdings Ltd 1970-98; chairman, Daily Mail and General Trust plc 1978-98; succeeded 1978 as third Viscount Rothermere; married 1957 Beverley Brooks (nee Patricia Matthews, died 1992; one son, two daughters, and one stepdaughter), 1993 Maiko Lee; died London 1 September 1998. More about:

Question: In which year did the London Evening News merge into the Evening Standard?
Answer: 1980